Happy 40th anniversary to “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me”, ...Write what you believe in, and it will resonate with the public. It was #1 or #2 in practically every country it was released in and set the stage for a long string of Culture Club hits that dominated the charts for most of the 1980s. By the time Boy George went solo in 1987, they had enjoyed 4 chart albums, 13 International hit singles, multiple tours around Europe, Japan, Australia and North America, and an amount of merchandise that includes books, videos, soundtrack albums, posters, and dolls the like of which had never been seen since The Beatles They won the Grammy for Best New Artist and George being George, thanked America for “knowing a good Drag Queen when they saw one.” Boy George was a pioneer in the gay rights movement that had struggled to have so much appeal in the straight communities. He crossed boundaries that even the most vocal supporters could not cross, he did it with humor, intelligence and talent. He was obviously gay- despite never saying the words to anybody-but was so charming being interviewed by the like of Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers or Terry Wogan, he won over the masses, by forcing the general public to see him as NOT just a gay man, but a talented singer-songwriter. The world then began to evolve from cautiously talent tolerating the queers (at best) to forming real honest opinions about equality. He forced his way into British living rooms by being himself, appeared on Top of the Pops and within the week, was in every newspaper and sitting pretty at #1. The American label had different ideas how to market the band, they sent out copies of the single without a picture sleeve to radio stations of all genres, and the song was played by most of them. The pop stations in the know gobbled it up, but black stations trying to get reggae to the Midwest did too. It worked, and here we are 40 years on still feeling the impact that that 20-year-old British boy had when he asked us if we really want to hurt him. David Lindsey